http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780375838897
Giff, Patricia Reilly. 2011. R My Name is Rachel. New York, NY: Random House. ISBN 0375838899
Rachel is a strong and appealing main character. She is a character that children can identify with and root for, as she assumes the responsibilities of the oldest child taking care of and holding together her family during the hardships of the Great Depression. The love and bickering of the siblings reflect how brothers and sisters deal with each other today, however; in R My Name Is Rachel, the children must also face the problems of the their time.
Giff presents the struggles families faced during the Great Depression with honest and accurate details. Both the school and library in North Lake are closed because there is no money, which is devastating to Rachel, an avid lover of books. The children have to go hungry because they have no money for food. The farmhouse in Northlake is integral to the story. The house is dilapidated, but the children make the best of it, cleaning and repairing holes. In order to feed the family, Rachel plants a garden and buys a goat for the milk, with her saved birthday money. These actions are realistic to the time period.
Themes of family and perseverance reflect the morals of the time, but are still relevant to readers today. Giff shows how difficult it was for children during the Great Depression, and Rachel 's struggle to take care of her family enforce these universal themes. Giff brings to life the spirit of the times with Rachel's inner thoughts, her interactions with her siblings, especially the stony-willed Cassie, and her letters to the beloved Miss Mitzi. She weaves together events from history such as the New Deal and hardships of the Great Depression into her simple story of a family pulling together to make ends me during difficult times.
R My Name Is Rachel does not include the author's sources or suggestions for further reading, but Patricia Reilly Giff is an award winning author of many historical fiction books for children.
Books In Print. Texas Woman's University. Accessed November 12, 2013
Summary
Thirteen-year-old Rachel lives with her father, and younger brother and sister, Joey and Cassie, in the city. The year is 1936, and like many families during the Great Depression, Rachel's family has fallen on hard times. In order to find work, Rachel's father must move the family to upstate New York. He has heard of a bank job available in North Lake, and there is a farm house they can rent. The move saddens Rachel. She must not only leave the only home she's ever known; she must say goodbye to everyone she knows, including Miss Mitzi, a close friend to the family who has been like a mother to Rachel after the death of her own. When the family arrives in North Lake, a snowstorm prevents Rachel's father from getting the bank job. The three sibling must survive by themselves on the farm, while their father takes a construction job miles away.
Critical Analysis
Rachel is a strong and appealing main character. She is a character that children can identify with and root for, as she assumes the responsibilities of the oldest child taking care of and holding together her family during the hardships of the Great Depression. The love and bickering of the siblings reflect how brothers and sisters deal with each other today, however; in R My Name Is Rachel, the children must also face the problems of the their time.
Reviews
A Booklist, February 01, 2011, review says, "Simply written, this novel doesn't have the emotional resonance of some recent Depression-era stories like Clare Vanderpool's Moon over Manifest (2010), but readers will root for the kids who seem to face overwhelming odds. The upbeat ending satisfies."
School Library Journal, November 01, 2011, describes R My Name Is Rachel, "Giff's depiction of the children's living conditions, daily activities, and fears and triumphs create a realistic, discussable, thoroughly enjoyable read. The ending is almost too perfectly "happy ever after" yet that is easy to overlook, given this gift to readers, even reluctant ones."
Connections
A Jackdaw of the Great Depression could be used to create a library display highlighting both informational and historical fiction books on the topic.
Children could also learn more about the Great Depression on the Library of Congress website.
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/themes/great-depression/
Other children's historical fiction titles set during the Great Depression include Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool, Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis, and A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck.
Books In Print. Texas Woman's University. Accessed November 12, 2013
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